MORE than 100 letters and Christmas cards went out from the Forest and Chepstow to 12 victims of human rights abuses around the world.

The Chepstow and District branch of Amnesty International, assisted by pupils from Wyedean School in Sedbury, held an open morning and invited shoppers to sign letters and cards at the Methodist church hall in Chepstow.

They have gone to prisoners of conscience in 12 countries including Burma, Egypt, El Salvador, Mal­aysia, Syria, Greece and the United States.

A spokesman for the Chepstow branch said: “The idea is to write greetings cards to the victim themselves, to raise their morale and remind them they’re not forgotten and to write to those people in authority who might be able to improve their situations or reconsider their cases.

“One of the great rewards of this letter-writing is that the authorities usually respond so positively.

“They are generally embarrassed that their mistreatment of victims of human rights abuses is known about in other countries.”